In the USA it's illegal for anyone other than the Postal Service to place anything in your mailbox. Technically, they own your mailbox, even though you have to provide it at your expense.

That's why they are dumping the advertising on his driveway, and why newspapers often provided a separate box for your newspaper that you mount below or beside your mailbox. I used past tense because we have no local newspaper anymore.

If they put this crap in your mailbox, they'd be committing a federal crime and postal inspectors would probably track them down if they got enough complaints.

> In the USA it's illegal for anyone other than the Postal Service to place anything in your mailbox.

how does this work with outgoing mail?

The law reads something like

>statute that prohibited the deposit of unstamped “mailable matter” in a mailbox

I assume the outgoing mail, if stamped, is ok. Edit; UPS may even be able to use it if the item has postage paid, but in that case they would just have USPS deliver it.

> how does this work with outgoing mail?

A more complete (but still not fully so) statement is that it is generally illegal for anyone but you and the postal service to put anything into your mailbox, and it is also generally illegal for anyone but you and the postal service to take anything out.

Sounds like the postal service picks up your mail from your own mailbox? That's completely different from the situation in NL. Here, we post our outgoing mail in big red mailboxes that exist solely for that purpose, but anyone can put stuff in your mailbox, which is usually in your door, so mail arrives on your doormat.

I feel like that system has broken down in recent years, since for delivering junk mail, so many refugees have been hired (as an easily exploitable and desperate workforce), who don’t yet have much knowledge of the local culture and how important those stickers are here.

I've had to educate a couple of delivery people on the meaning of 'no' but otherwise it has worked very well for me.

In Australia we'll have a little no junk mail or no unsolicited mail sign and most box stuffers are good at following that even though there's no legal obligation - except real-estate agents. They suck.

I saw one as I was leaving one day who had just left a typical pamphlet in our mailbox. I pointed out the no junk unsolicited sign and he started on how it was important information I may be interested in.

I suggested that while that was a nice rationalisation, he knows it's bullshit and he should get his hand off it.